


What isn't and what should always be

by lullys



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-16
Updated: 2013-05-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 02:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/805875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lullys/pseuds/lullys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean has a good life. He lives in a nice place, is married to Carmen and works in a garage. But what if he's sent to a world where he travels around the country hunting monsters and sharing motel rooms with his brother?</p>
            </blockquote>





	What isn't and what should always be

Dean is coming back home, finally. It was a long day at the garage, lots of work. He doesn’t complain though, that means more money. And Carmen will be home waiting for him, thank God she’s off tonight. 

He parks in front of his building, and when he walks towards the door, he notices a man standing close to it. He walks faster, and when he has his hand on the doorknob, he hears the man’s voice.

“Dean.”

He turns his head on instinct, he wasn’t expecting that all. But before he can ask how the hell the stranger knows his name, he feels a hand on his forehead, and before everything goes black, he can swear he saw a flicker of blue in his eyes.

**

Dean wakes up and don’t recognize where he’s in. For starters, his mattress smells like mold and his pillow is hard as a rock. But the weirdest thing, someone is snoring somewhere. Carmen doesn’t snore. He opens his eyes a little more, and it looks like a motel room. A crappy motel room. when he looks at the other bed, the impossible is happening. 

“Sam???”

He gets a grunt as a response.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Doing the Macarena, what does it look like?”

That’s truly impossible. Why would he and Sam be sharing a motel room? They barely talk to each other. And Sam is going to Stanford, he lives miles away in California. This can’t be happening. 

When Sam finally wakes up, he reminds Dean they have to go talk to some witnesses. Sam takes a shower, puts on a suit, and Dean hasn’t been able to get out of bed yet, he’s in shock.

“Dean, come on dude, we need to go! Go get dressed already!”

“Sam, where are we?” His voice is no more than a whisper.

“What do you mean Dean? We’re in Illinois, where else?”

Dean gets up from the bed.

“Illinois?? And how did we end up here?? Where’s Carmen?”

“Who’s Carmen, Dean?”

“Who’s Ca-“

He grabs his cell phone from the nightstand and searches for Carmen’s number. But it’s not there. Of course he knows it by heart, so he dials it. A random person answers, and tells him there’s no Carmen. He tries the same thing with mom. And the same thing happens. No Mary.

He sits down on the bed again and rests his head on his hands.

“It’s a dream. I’m dreaming, it’s the only explanation.”

Sam sits on the other bed facing his brother.

“Dean, you’re really scaring me. Who the hell is Carmen and why are you calling mom?? What the hell Dean??”

Dean lifts his head to looks at his brother.

“Why wouldn’t I call mom? And Carmen is my wife Sam, I should be asking you ‘what the hell’!”

Sam stares at Dean as if he’s looking at a stranger.

“Dean… you don’t have a wife. And mom’s dead.” He says like it’s obvious.

“MOM’S DEAD?? Are you crazy Sam?? What are you talking about?”

Sam tried to talk slow, as if he was talking to a 5-year-old.

“Dean… mom died when you were 4… there was a fire in my nursery, remember? Yellow Eyes? Ring a bell? He killed dad last year too?”

“What? But dad died from a heart attack!”

Sam stares at him more deeply, as he was looking past his eyes, into his soul. And then, it finally hits him.

“You’re not my brother.”

“What?? Sam, what are you talking about, of course I am! It’s me, Dean!”

“You are Dean indeed. But not my Dean. I know my brother better than anyone else in the entire world, and you’re not him. For starters, you didn’t call me ‘Sammy’ at all since we woke up.”

“Sammy? I never called you that my entire life!”

“See? You’re not my Dean. And I’m not your Sam.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Is it? Tell me about your life, then. And the last thing you remember after waking up today.”

Dean tells him everything. How they grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. How they pretty much had an apple pie life. How Dean always liked sports and Sam was more of a geek, how they had different lives growing up, not really being close, how Sam got a full ride and went to Stanford, how Dean got a job at a garage and married beautiful Carmen, a nurse. How Sam was dating Jessica, a lovely girl, and he could bet they would get married too. How dad died from a heart attack last year. And how he found a strange man outside his building and how he had strange blue eyes and tattoos and touched his forehead. 

Sam listens to everything in silence. When Dean finishes, he feels a few tears coming up to his eyes, but don’t let them fall. 

“So… this is what our lives would have been if mom hadn’t been killed?”

“How is your life here?”

But Sam doesn’t answer, instead, he goes for his laptop. “We need to find out what sent you here so we can send you back to your world.”

After a lot of research (Dean helping as much as he could without knowing what to do) and some calls to Bobby, Sam finds out what happened.

“It’s called a Djinn. Like a genie. It grants you a wish. That’s why he sent you here. You must have wished for something, and he granted you.”

“That’s insane, you know that?”

“Not in our world. What I can’t figure out is what could you have wished for to end up here. I mean, look at this. Look at our lives. How can you possible want this instead of the perfect life you have back there?”

“I have no idea, Sam.”

“Anyway. There’s a way to stop it and send you back. You’re in a dream, right? Your real life is another one. So, legend says that when you’re about to die in a dream, you wake up.” He reaches his duffel bag and gets a knife. “That’s all we have to do.”

Dean could have freaked out, but he knew it was a dream. Even if it was real, it was still a dream. 

“Okay. I’ll do it. But first, I want to know how’s your life here. What happened to you and Dean after mom died.”

And then, Sam tells him everything. How dad would leave them with other people, and when Dean grew up more, they would be alone in motel rooms and rented houses. How Sam and Dean more often then not had to share a bed. How Dean would read stories to him before going to bed. How Dean would cook him dinner and take him to school. How he taught him how to talk to girls, and how Sam admired his big brother. He tells him about the hunt, about demons and monsters. He tells him how Sam left for Stanford but had to leave it because his girlfriend – Jessica – was killed in another fire. How Dean and him went back on the road, how dad died, how they never had a real home, only the Impala and each other.

“That’s why I don’t understand why you would prefer this life instead of what you have.”

Dean says good bye to Sam.  
Dean stabs himself.  
Dean wakes up on his own bed with Carmen by his side.  
Everything is back to normal.

He understood, though. Even though Sam couldn’t, he knew what he had wished for, and why he ended up in that world.

All Sam and Dean had growing up, was each other. They didn’t have a mother and a father, even when he was alive. Dean was Sam’s mom and dad, he took care of him. He did everything for him. They needed each other. They were each other’s home. 

In real life, that never happened. Dean and Sam grew up in separated rooms. They had mom and dad to take care of them, to feed them, to take them to school, to tell them stories before going to bed. Dean had his friends, and Sam had his own. They had different interests. They never needed each other.

They never needed each other.

They had a ordinary life. They never had to share a bed, never had to drive around the country by each other’s side. Dean never had to look out for his baby brother. Dean never got to call him Sammy.

Dean wished he and Sam got along. That they were real brothers and friends. That’s why the djinn sent him there. The other Sam couldn’t understand that, but he didn’t realize how precious was what they had. 

It’s mom’s birthday, and Carmen and him head off to her place. 5 minutes after they arrive, a car parks by the sidewalk. When Dean goes outside, he sees Sam getting off the car. He goes toward him and hugs him. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had hugged his brother.

When he lets Sam go, he looks at Dean and he’s surprised.

“What was that about, Dean?”

“It’s good to see you, Sammy.”

“Since when do you call me Sammy??”

Dean smiles at his baby brother.

“Since right now.”


End file.
